Share this with

The mystery surrounding a canoiest who went missing for five years has deepened today after his wife suddenly shut her Facebook site and went offline.

Anne Darwin is thought to have moved to Panama just weeks before husband John walked into a London police station claiming he couldn’t remember a thing after disappearing near Hartlepool in 2002.

Mrs Darwin, 55, who declared herself a widow six months after he vanished, is still to be traced.

And today her profile on social networking site Facebook was deactivated in a process known as ‘Facebook suicide’.

Returned: John Darwin

Relatives thought John Darwin drowned in heavy seas after his red canoe was found smashed close to his home in Seaton Carew. But he walked into a London police station on Saturday evening and declared “I think I’m a missing person”.

The 57-year-old ex-teacher and former prison officer has been reunited with his sons Anthony and Mark. But his wife Anne, a former doctor’s receptionist, deleted her Facebook entries this morning, along with posts from her two sons.

Mrs Darwin sold the family home for £295,000 less than a month ago and has emigrated to Panama City, although she has not yet been tracked down.

It came as it was claimed John had run up hige debts in the months before he went missing.

According to the Evening Standard today bailiffs repeatedly knocked at the door of his former home looking for him.

The paper also said he set up 17 phone lines in the house to play the stock market and his bank account had been allegedly active in 2005 and last year.

Also a John Darwin, using the family address, had applied for a credit card in March last year.

Cleveland Police never closed its missing person inquiry when a major sea search failed to find any trace of the family man.

Detectives plan to travel from the North East to the London area to interview Mr Darwin, who has been staying with relatives since his reappearance.

A force spokeswoman said: “Cleveland Police are delighted that Mr Darwin is alive and, it appears, safe and well.

“Inquiries in relation to this matter are on-going and have been since the initial disappearance in March 2002.

“It will be appropriate to speak to Mr Darwin at some stage in this inquiry, but we are yet to determine when that will be.”

Mr Darwin’s father Ronald, 91, believed a childhood head injury sustained when he was run over by a car may have caused amnesia in later life.

The former builder, from Blackhall Colliery, County Durham, said: “I always thought he would turn up.

“When I speak to him, I will ask him where he has been these last few years and I’ll ask ‘why didn’t you make arrangements to see me before now?’.